Alpha Bank

Alpha Bank S.A.
Αλφα Τράπεζα Α.Ε.

Type	Anonymi Etairia
Traded as	Athex: ALPHA
Industry	Financial services
Founded	1879
Headquarters	Athens, Greece
Number of locations	1032 worldwide branches(Q4 2014) (403 Branches in Greece)
Key people	Vasileios Rapanos , Chairman Demetrios Mantzounis, CEO
Products	Retail, investment and corporate banking, asset management
Revenue	€ 2.392 billion (Q4 2014)[1]
Profit	-€329.7 million (Q4 2014)[1]
Total assets	€72.935 billion (Q4 2014)[1]
Total equity	€7.30 billion (Q4 2014)[1] core Tier 1 capital=13.1% (fully loaded Basel III)
Number of employees	15,193 (Q4 2014)[1]
Subsidiaries	Alpha Bank Cyprus Ltd, Alpha Bank Romania, Alpha Bank Bulgaria, Alpha Bank Beograd, Alpha Bank Skopje, Alpha Bank Albania, Alpha Bank London
Website	www.alpha.gr

Alpha Bank is the fourth largest Greek bank by total assets but the second largest by market capitalisation of 3.95 Billion Euro as of 29 April 2015. It has a subsidiary and branch in London, and branches and subsidiaries throughout Southeastern Europe (see "International expansion" below). Founded in 1879, it has been controlled by the Costopoulos family since the very beginning. Currently Ioannis Costopoulos, who is the grandson of the original founder John F. Costopoulos, and the nephew of Stavros Costopoulos, Foreign Minister in the liberal government of Georgios Papandreou, is the Chairman.

On 1 February 2013, Alpha Bank acquired the entire share capital of Emporiki Bank and the legal merger was completed on 28.6.2013.^[2]

On 31 May 2013, the Bank proceeded to a successful recapitalisation with oversubscription of the required private-sector participation in the Rights Issue, which resulted in the preservation of Alpha Bank's private character.^[3]

On 31 March 2014, Alpha Bank successfully completed its Euro 1.2 Billion Capital Increase.^[4]

On 17 April 2014, the Bank redeemed the total amount of the Hellenic Republic's Preference Shares.^[5]

On 26 October 2014, Alpha Bank announced the successful completion of ECB’s Comprehensive Assessment in the Static Adverse Scenario with CET1 8.07% and Capital Surplus of Euro 1.3 billion. Based on the dynamic adverse assumptions, CET1 stands at 8.45% with Capital Surplus of Euro 1.8 billion.^[6]

On 16 January 2015, Alpha Bank requested Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) from the Bank of Greece.^[7] Its total funding from the ECB (ELA and non-ELA) is €22.4 bn as at 28.2.2015.

History

John F. Costopoulos, Painting by Georgios Jakobides, 1919

In Greece

• In 1879 John F. Costopoulos established a small commercial firm in the city of Kalamata.
• In 1918 the banking department of the "J.F. Costopoulos" firm changed its name to Bank of Kalamata.
• In 1924 the bank moved its headquarters to Athens and changed its name to Banque de Credit Commercial Hellenique.
• In 1947 the bank changed its name to the Commercial Credit Bank (CCB).
• In 1972 the CCB changed its name to Credit Bank (Trapeza Pisteos).
• In 1994 Credit Bank changed its name to Alpha Credit Bank (ACB).
• In 1999 ACB acquired 51% of the shares of the Ionian Popular Bank.
• In 2000 ACB absorbed the Ionian Popular Bank. In the same year ACB changed its name to Alpha Bank.
• In 2002 Alpha Bank's attempted merger with National Bank of Greece fell through.
• In 2012 Alpha Bank called off its merger with Eurobank Ergasias, which was announced the previous year.^[8]
• In 2012, Alpha Bank acquired Emporiki Bank from Credit Agricole for €1.^[9]
• In 2013, Alpha Bank took over the deposits of Cooperative Bank of Dodecanese, Cooperative Bank of Western Macedonia and Cooperative Bank of Evia.^[10]
• In 2014, Alpha Bank took over Citibank's Greek retail banking operations.^[11]
• 31.12.2014: Risk Weighted Assets:€52.6bn,Total loans: €62.3 bn (€52.2 bn in Greek loans, €9.8bn in loans abroad) 33% are Non Performing-46% using European Banking Authority definition, with a 62% Provision coverage and €42.9 bn in deposits. Loan to deposit ratio= 116% Cost to income ratio= 56%

International expansion

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Alpha Bank Tower, Bucharest.

Building of the Alpha Bank in Cannon Street, London.

• In 1960 Commercial Credit Bank established a subsidiary in Cyprus that it may later have closed or sold.
• In the early 1990s, the bank started on a program of international expansion, especially in Southeastern Europe.
• In 1994 Credit Bank and the EBRD established "Banca Bucureşti" in Romania, which commenced operations the next year. Credit Bank owned about 50% of the bank.
• In 1994 ACB acquired Commercial Bank of London from Commercial Bank of Greece (Emporiki Bank) and renamed it Alpha Credit Bank London.
• In 1998 ACB established a branch in Tirana, Albania, and followed that with three more branches.
• In 1998 ACB acquired 82.5% of Lombard NatWest Bank in Cyprus and renamed it Alpha Bank Cyprus Ltd.
• In 1999 ACB acquired 65% of Kreditna Banka, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia.(see Alpha Bank Skopje).
• In 2000 "Banca Bucureşti" changed its name to "Alpha Bank Romania" (ABR). Monte dei Paschi di Siena took a 5% share of the bank. Alpha Bank’s share became 63%. ABR itself acquired a 12.5% stake in Victoria Bank (est. 1989), the largest private bank in Moldova.
• In 2002 ACB acquired the minority stake and became the sole shareholder in Alpha Bank Skopje, accounting for 100% of its share capital.
• In early 2005 Alpha Bank acquired 88.64% stake in Serbian Jubanka and changed its name to Alpha Bank Beograd and then to Alpha Bank Srbija.
• Alpha Bank also has an extensive branch network in Bulgaria, the foundation of which it inherited from Ionian and Popular Bank, which entered in 1994 with a representative office in Sofia.
• In August 2007 Turkish Banking Regulatory and Supervisory Agency blocked the Alpha Bank's move to buy a 50% share in Alternatifbank (Abank) citing Alpha Bank not meeting the terms of Article 8 of Turkey's banking law. The article covers the financial strength, track record and personal history of a bank's board of directors ^[12]
• On March 27, 2008, Alpha Bank reached a deal to buy a majority stake in newly established OJSC Astra Bank^[13] in the Ukraine as part of plans to expand in the region. Alpha Bank agreed to buy 90 percent of Astra Bank for 9 million euros.

In addition, Alpha Bank has a branch in London and a finance company, Alpha Finance US, in New York. The latter does not exist anymore.^[14]

See also

• List of banks
• List of banks in Greece
• Banking in Greece
• List of Greek companies
• Ionian Bank and Ionian Popular Bank of Greece

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alpha Bank.

• Official website
• Alpha Bank stock quote on Bloomberg

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